Slums: The Metamorphosis of the Cities outskirts.

Slums: The Metamorphosis of the Cities outskirts.

Metamorphosis is a word that I will be following in the near future. Our previous readings of Marina Warner, Robert Smithson and John Frazer demonstrate interest in the word amongst the architecture community. To me, the word is becoming relevant as the post modern era begins to fade into a new era or possible eras that people are constantly trying to discover. It is difficult to determine if the styles and buzz words of today will generate a more permanent philosophy or the future will rather become a multiplicity of agendas.

The readings demonstrated the authors feelings that architecture is making a fundamental change assisted by computers and new discoveries in the sciences which will change the way we think and design. Architecture has cross pollenated to many other disciplines which has been both inspiring and insulting. Many star architects or architects with authority ground architectural ideas in fields where they maintain a poor fund of knowledge. To be honest the later has left me questioning the transmigration of architectural thought as it basis itself so esoterically in other fields that are so far removed from the basic experience of the built environment. I hope that the transformation of architecture attempts to empathize with the human condition rather than impose the latest buzz word into another quixotic design.

Another word that will stay with me for the rest of my life is slums. While Mike Davis seems to try too hard to invoke our emotions, never the less the numbers are a reality and a quantity that no one should rest easily with. It was also interesting to hear Janice Perlman arguing through a different paradigm on the nature of slums however I tend to question almost all of her statements towards slums as being an elaborate academic argument. There is no doubt in my mind that this will be the major issue of design within our lifetime as world populations double to unprecedented levels and more of the worlds rural populations migrate to the outskirts of cities.

There can be no peace, sustainability, or happiness while there is such a disproportionate allocation of resources within the world. And perhaps it is too late. Maybe we have crossed a threshold of comfort through technology that the world cannot sustain for such large populations. Curbing population growth and economic models are not our expertise so we must struggle to help uplift communities out of abject poverty through a balanced approach of economic incentives and design. In this sense I do think that architects should be interdisciplinary so that they can understand these problems more holisticly. Economics and infrastructure seem to be the most pressing in this regard. I would hate to think that architecture can only benefit the top percentile that it generally caters to. If architecture is meant to uplift and protect the human condition then it has possibly reached such an elitist pinnacle that these qualities have lost there meaning. Therefore I would argue for the need of architecture to ground itself into a more socially conscious and sustainable planet.